Re: Post Brussels : Elsevier and Australian STM debate 'sprouts'

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btopenworld.com>]

I am amazed by this revelation. This is not a shorthand for 
indicating disbelief. I am amazed!

I know (because I was head of journals at OUP) that OUP certainly 
pays at least most of its journal editors and supports them in 
other ways - e.g. manuscript submission systems and the financing 
of editorial board meetings as well as back-up staff. I expect 
CUP is the same.

Anthony

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy Thatcher" <sgt3@psu.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 12:49 AM
Subject: Re: Post Brussels : Elsevier and Australian STM debate 'sprouts'

> I cannot claim to know how commercial or society publishers 
> compensate editors of their journals, but I can tell you that 
> Penn State Press pays not a cent to any of the editors of its 11 
> journals-and I suspect we are not alone among university press 
> journal publishers.
>
> Sandy Thatcher
> Penn State University Press
>
>
> > I just want to comment on one aspect of this posting and ignore 
> > Colin's ill-informed financial suppositions about the incomes 
> > of the big players. I am sure that he can get a grant to trawl 
> > through the returns from the public companies concerned.
> >
> > He and is friends ("a number of us in Australia") are almost 
> > certainly misinformed. If I was a journal editor would I tell 
> > Colin how much I earned? I would not.
> >
> > I have never worked for Elsevier but I would be amazed if that 
> > company do not pay their editors and the editorial 
> > infrastructure well and at a rate rising considerably above 
> > inflation. My own experience of a publisher is along these 
> > lines. I have worked for Academic, OUP, and Chapman & Hall and 
> > I now work part-time for Blackwell - though I am not posting 
> > for them or from them. I know that all the editors whom I 
> > currently deal with get paid. My memory is that this is true of 
> > all the hundreds of journals I have published in the past.
> >
> > I am certain that Elsevier is not different from these 
> > publishers and I would very surprised if Australia was 
> > different in this particular way.
> >
> > I know that there are some self-published society journals 
> > where the editor is not paid by the society. I came across one 
> > example the other day. However this editor was supported by an 
> > impressive paid infrastructure and he agreed that his successor 
> > would have to be paid.
> >
> > My own experience of publishing, which is rather greater than 
> > that of Colin (now I know a publisher), is that, whereas in the 
> > past editors could use the resources of their departments, this 
> > is usually no longer the case in most parts of the world and 
> > this adds considerably to editorial costs. There are other 
> > inflationary factors at work too. Because of the increased 
> > pressures of academic life to do research and publish the 
> > results, publishers are now frequently expected to "buy-out" 
> > consultancy time - at least in those disciplines where 
> > consultancy is a fact of life and a reward that supplements 
> > poor academic salaries.
> >
> > Anthony Watkinson